I am writing this blog for the travel curious, and for the armchair heroes who I know are watching me

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Post ten: Gettin’ what
I paid for – The trip to Machu Pichu

GOOD EATS AND OTHER
DODGY HAUNTS

By the time I got
to Aguas Calientes I was practically delirious with exhaustion, for I had only
slept 3 hours the night before embarking on this long journey. I was so tired and cold that I could not
manage to “shop around” for a well-priced meal.
I ended up spending $40 just that night for dinner and a massage to help
me recuperate. So much for saving costs.

WHERE’S THE
DRIVER?!?

The bus driver was
rather nice on the way out of Cusco. I
ended up taking Perurail for a 2-hour train ride followed by a 2-hour bus ride
to get back to Cusco the next day. I
paid $75 for this transport and it still required quite a bit of patience.

EVERY SOL SAVED IS A SOL EARNED

Overall, I spent
about $200 on the trip to Machu Pichu. By
trying to save an extra $110 I ended up having to travel 16 hours instead of
just 8. I ended up having to hike in the
pouring rain alone in the jungle for 3-odd hours. I ended up paying about the same. I would highly recommend just paying
full-cost if you’re planning to go see Machu Pichu.

THE SWEET SPOT

As I wound along
the cliff and the ruins of Machu Pichu unraveled before my eyes, I realized
what an incredible sight that was to see.
The Incas were clearly very intelligent and prolific. I don’t buy into the theory that aliens made
Machu Pichu, but it is clear that the Incas were privy to some very advanced
and long-since-lost technologies.

My mother passed
away January 4, 2009. That was the day
after I had seen the sunrise over a hidden Maya Estella on a Honduras
mountain-top. Three long and interesting
years have passed since then. It filled
my heart with joy to be able to sit alone at Machu Pichu and watch the sun rise
over the mountain as I meditated on the memory of my mother. I have been blessed with far more freedom and
love than I could ever deserve. For all
the set-backs, tragedies and weird things that have happened to me, I have been
compensated with an incredible richness of life experience. The lows have been grossly over-compensated
by the highs. If I had to go today, I
would go knowing that I had left no stone un-turned and that my life was far
more incredible that any one person could deserve.

SAY WHA?!?

I spent a net $90 on the “all-inclusive” trip
to Machu Pichu where other agencies were selling for $210. When I heard this price I thought to myself, “Exactly,
this is what I’m talking about. I can do
this!” The next morning I arrived to the
oficinia at 7:40 am to board my bus, but low and behold, it was not there. After some searching, phone calls, and other
efforts on my part, I finally located and boarded a bus that was supposed to be
Machu Pichu-bound.

The travel agency’s owner had explained
to me that he could sell me the ticket so cheaply because they would drive us
instead of send us by train. For $110,
that was ok with me. What he failed to
mention was that the road didn’t go all the way to Agua Calientes (the city
where one must lodge in order to see Machu Pichu in the morning). The roads that we drove were eternally
winding around plummeting cliff’s edges.
It was pouring rain and the driver was speeding. There was two-way traffic, bicycle riders in
the road, and zero visibility.

I noticed that the roadway engineers that
designed this new road must not have been too concerned about the landslides that
were occurring all along the site development area, for it appears that they
just dig the road out every time it gets covered over in earth. Perhaps somehow, they did not foresee that
the road would become part of the landslide itself, as it had. I remember waking from restless dreams only
to see the bus trying to pass by on one-side of the road because the other had
already fallen off of the cliff into the deep chasm below. Also, I believe the stormwater engineers must
have been taking a snooze, for areas of the road were covered in rivers and
waterfalls which sprung from the cliffs above.
Those were always nice to drive through because of the risk that the
flood current would be just high enough to lift our van and carry it off over
the cliff’s edge with the waters.
Somehow, though, once again… God was on my side and we made it to a
stopping point.

Unfortunately, this stopping point was
not Aguas Calientes. Instead it was a
park entrance about 8 – 10 miles from the hostel where we had
reservations. It looked as though I
would be walking through the Andean jungle, just as I hoped for the chance to do
while I was still in Bolivia. The walk
was only supposed to be 2 hours and there was 4 hours until dark. With a broad smile on my face, I embarked on
this amazon trail with my fellow travelers.
Somehow though, I couldn’t stand to walk so slowly, so I made the courageous
decision to go it alone through the Amazon jungle bound towards Aguas
Calientes. It began to rain fairly
heavily about 1 hour into the trip.
Comes to find out, the trip between the drop-off point and the town was
2-hours by train, but about 4-hours by foot.
I ended up walking alone through the jungle in the pouring rain, as fast
as I could for 3 hours until I arrived at the city at nightfall. I would have paid the $110 had I known, but
isn’t hindsight always 20-20?

ESPIRITU LIBRE PARA LA VIDA

As I type here, in
a Cusco café, barefoot with no make-up on, I realize how little so-called
status means to me anymore. I want to
live a rich life, where richness is measured in how many people I can help and
how much I can contribute to society and the environment. Of course, I want to be able to support
myself, but this is the floor not the ceiling.
Life can be so magical and those born in the US are so privileged. To me, it would be really something to be
able to share that privilege and freedom with people that weren’t so
lucky.